Retro Robots Rampage - Kriegsfront Tactics Demo on Steam Deck

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Brought to us by Toge Productions, Kriegsfront Tactics is a procedural, turn-based RPG that blends elements of classic tactical strategy games, roguelikes, and low-poly retro visuals. It’s still unknown when the full game will officially launch. While we patiently wait, there’s a demo available on the Steam Store here. The demo gives you access to a pre-selected team, load-out, and two maps/missions to explore, and there's definitely a lot of potential from what is being showcased so far.

Story

Kriegsfront Tactics is a procedural, turn-based mecha tactics RPG set in an alternate 1970s during a Southeast Asian conflict. As the commander of a mecha squad sent behind enemy lines, you'll build your team, complete missions, and strive to survive the front another day. The demo itself doesn't give away much plot, but looking at the main Steam page and trailers reveals a little more.

The game takes place in Vietnam, and you fight for freedom against oppression. The impressive Combat Alpha Trailer shows off high tension in beautifully drawn anime-style cinematics that tell the story. You and your mecha squad are deep behind enemy lines, trying to fight against foreign imperialists who wish to keep the people of Nusanesia under military control. The stakes are high as you fight for the freedom of your people against the war-torn jungle backdrop of an alternate Vietnam War!

Gameplay

Anyone who’s ever played a turn-based strategy game will feel right at home here. For those that haven't, turn-based style RPGs involve lots of planning and positioning of your characters with no real-world timer. Think of it more like a game of chess than Call of Duty. You have action points per character for each turn, and you use these to move, fight, defend, and scout the map. Once you've exhausted all your action points, you end your turn, changing it over to your opponents. Battles can swing back and forth depending on your ability to adapt to your enemies' advances. Turn-based RPGs like Kriegsfront Tactics rely solely on your cunning and not at all on your reflexes.

The combat itself in Kreigsfront Tactics has surprising depth. Varied mecha suits include tanky melee guys, heavy weapon guys, and snipers. The demo has already selected your team and their load-out, but the full game trailer shows that custom load-outs and upgrades will be an option.

Positioning, weapon choice, move management, and your wits all play a part in taking down the bad guys. It also cleverly adopts a body part targeting system (think V.A.T.S from Fallout 4). You might find yourself targeting an enemy mech’s gun arm instead of head to disable their shots when it’s their turn. All these layers allow for a wider variety of tactics and gameplay, which helps you lean into your gameplay style.

Visuals

The developers have gone for a deliberate nostalgic art design with low poly, sharp, flat visuals, and little detail. It may not appeal to everyone, but this visual design is such a faithful visual throwback to ’90s PC gaming that I loved it. It immediately reminded me of the visuals from older games like Desert Strike, Dune 2, Wolfenstein 3D, and Rise of the Robots. Add some grungy rock guitar music, and you’ve got a game that feels like it belongs in a different era. Not everyone will love this art decision, but it works for me.

Awkward Camera Angles

At the time of writing, the camera in the demo is absolutely bonkers! There are also very few tweaking options in the settings to fix it, which is a shame. The camera seems to be an elastic band from where you left it to where the action occurs. It can randomly revert to a spot on the map when it returns to your turn, which is jarring. It also might zoom fully in or rotate your view, which is disorientating and annoying.

Having to zoom in or out, adjust the angle, and rotate it each time it’s my turn is rage-inducing. I don’t mind it bouncing around the map during action scenes and animations, but it should always revert to where I left it. Anyway, hopefully, this will be fixed in the full release. We can only hope!

Playing on Steam Deck

My Steam Deck settings were on performance 60FPS mode with Wattage set at 10. I didn’t have to make any adjustments, and I believe I could have lowered the wattage for better battery life without the game suffering. In-game settings were also set too high. The FPS did swing back and forth often from 40 down to as low as 22, but none of this was noticeable. If I’d turned off the FPS counter, I would have been none the wiser. Gameplay and performance benefit greatly from the turn-based style of the game. Speed and smooth frame rates are irrelevant in Kriegsfront Tactics, which is nice!

Overall

This is a very impressive first impression. I loved the retro feel, rough-around-the-edges style, and mech robot action. The turn-based combat is surprisingly deep, and I found myself returning to both missions numerous times just to try out different tactics and play styles. Toge Productions posts monthly updates on their Steam Page, and hopefully, we’ll get a confirmed release date soon. Add Kriegsfront Tactics to your wishlist today to keep yourself informed.

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